This invention relates to an improved sheet holder for enabling the user to unroll and retrieve individual sections of sheets using one hand.
Devices designed to hold rolls of sheet paper, plastic, and the like have been known in the art for quite some time. For example, toilet paper and paper towel dispensers are widely utilized. As anyone knows who has utilized these holders, occasionally a problem presents itself while using them. This particular problem is that the user may tug forcefully on the sheet roll in order to tear the sheet from the continuous section only to have a large quantity of the rolled sheets become unrolled instead of detaching the desired section from the roll. Various means and methods have been designed to prevent the unwanted unrolling of toilet paper and the like. An example of one invention used to hinder the rapid unrolling of toilet paper is embodied in Stern U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,379. Stern utilizes a "brake" accessory that consists of a spring clip that pushes against the side of a roll of paper thereby preventing the roll from "being unwound from the roll too quickly". Another example of an invention designed to limit the free rolling of roll holders is shown in Christian U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,163. The gist of this invention is a brake spindle inserted in the cardboard tube of a roll of tissue, which roll is then placed on a dispenser and limited in its free rolling by the pressure of a base plate against the arm of the roll holder thereby "producing a frictional force which prevents free rotation of the roll of tissue."
A drawback to the break mechanisms known in the art is that if the brakes are not adjusted correctly for each particular roll, and if the brake is too slack, the user still needs two hands to tear a section of paper from the roll, one to hold the roll and one to tear the section from the roll. If, on the other hand, the brake of the prior art inventions is too tight, sections of paper are torn from the roll one after another at a time when the user needs more tissue than is capable of being pulled from the roll due to the tight brake. Further, the free rolling motion of the paper rolls, as designed, is inhibited by means of intrusive mechanisms which generally require "tuning" to assure that proper tension is obtained and maintained. Thus, there is a need in the art for providing a sheet holder that does not interfere with the free rolling of sheet dispensers commonly used throughout the country. Further, there is a need in the art for providing a sheet holder apparatus that enables a person to remove a desired number of sheets from a roll of sheets while using only one hand to do so. It, therefore, is an object of this invention to provide a one handed sheet roller that does not interfere with the free rolling of sheet dispensers and which may be utilized single handedly whether through necessity or not.